Escape the factory in this uncharted inspired level...
One man's Trashure
Third Person Adventure
Summary
A Scrappy Survivor has found themselves in the bowels of a disrepaired Trash Compactor Facility, dumpster diving for spare parts. Search the factory floor for these collectibles and find your way to the world outside!
Use your grappling hook to pull loose unstable scrap and search nooks and crannies to collectibles. Watch your step though! The facility is treacherous...
Breakdown
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Solo development spanning 4 weeks of half-time work
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Focus on Level Flow, Findability and Discoverability
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Working with established content and iterating on it
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Programs used
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Unreal 5.4
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Blender 4.2
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Miro
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Photoshop/Photopea
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Notes:
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Base template not made by me: I used IWALS as a template for its parkour elements. IWALS is made by Jakub W.
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Meshes are made by me in Blender and Unreal's modeling tool.
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Particle effects from Unreal Marketplace
Level Overview
and Walkthrough
Player Start
Machine Hall
Flooded Floor
Getting Lost
The player learns of collectibles, the goal door and how to use the rope.
A sudden drop throws the player for a loop. This sets up the presence of the claw.
Section A
Grapple POint
End Goal
Collectible
Player Start
To Section B
Blocked Gate
Rafters
Returning to the path, the player sees their goal blocked. If only there was a claw to move the debris...
Introducing the problem
Solution in sight
Progression is made upwards and onwards. Tension is raised through the fear of falling...
Section B
Grapple POint
End Goal
Collectible
Player Start
To Section C
Pillar
Run
The expected use of the claw is subverted as the player must dislodge it to reach the blocked door: the player is jerked along with it and exits the facility in style!
Claw Ride
Going out with a boom
Tension continues to build as the trash pillars topple when stepped on. Think fast!
Tension to the MAx
Section C
Grapple POint
End Goal
Collectible
Player Start
Design Techniques
Part of something larger
This level used to be part of a larger school assignment. I had made a tension graph dividing the full experience into three acts, with the Trash Compactor Facility presented here housing the second act. Used this as a foundation, I streamlined and re-scoped the project with the time available.
The Design Goals I decided on was to hone in on findability, while offering detours enticing discoverability. The flow of this Second Act Level should also build towards a grand climax entering whatever level comes afterwards.
Signifiers & Signposting
As a Second Act Level, the player would already be familiar with locomotion and yellow lattices for Grappling Hook use. Player Guidance is signified with red/blue platforms, green interactables, and a level of detail drawing the player towards the main path. This implies secrets lurking in less detailed areas!
Rabbit Hole'd, twice
Letting the player drop suddenly to subvert expectations is known as a Rabbit Hole. Getting lost in this way is good for tension building as it disrupts the mental map of the player. To prevent overuse, the rabbit holes are near the beginning and end respectively.
Framing
In this busy environment, framing is key for the player know where to head next. Using varying lightness between foreground, middle ground and background, revealing only part of the problem and using leading lines, the player is subtly instructed where I wish them to look.
Using A datum
The claw rails hang down the middle of the facility. As the player looks up from the lower floors, the rails often come into view as a navigational reference. When seeking hidden collectibles and getting turned around, the bilateral symmetry makes it easier to find your way in relation to it.
Tension of Traversal
Exploration and traversal tend to lean towards a lower tension level compared to other playstyles. To combat this, I've used increasingly higher elevations, smaller ledges and timed events to raise tension at moments following longer sections of exploration.
Process
Second hand Project
This being a whiteboxed project which I iterated further on made the process slightly different compared to my first piece. Time being the most crucial aspect of this project, it was important to understand as much of the ground work as possible.
Analysis
Initial Breakdown
Looking back at the assignment which served as a base for this piece, I listed my likings and dislikings about the chosen zone. With this in mind, I had an idea for how to concentrate the experience previously taking none zones into just one.
Metrics Gym
Understanding is key to developing cohesive levels which the player read as playble. I fell back to old knowledge of the template, where I had set up a thorough gym exploring the gameplay features of IWALS. Through this I knew what to use and what to avoid. The rope elemet was chosen for this reason.
Using the Level Sequencer
With a lot of the core systems in place already, I knew I could focus more on how the player experienced the level.
Using Unreal's Level Sequence, I did early tests to see that my vision would transcribe.
Iterating in Whitebox
A clear Path
To get a better feel for the flow, I blockout the intended path among the whitebox assets to get a better view of where iteration was needed. As path assets was reintroduced I had to make sure the way forward was still discernable to the player.
Benchmarked one area
With time being short for this piece, I had to find a degree of polish I could deliver on. I put effort into benchmarking the Machine Hall, letting it set the standard for the rest of the level.
The Machine Hall in particular changed a bit to account for shorter playtime, requiring the player to quicker be set up with the end goal in sight.
Feedbacking
the mood
I almost lost the pluckiness of the original game world. Through feedback and playtesting, the direction I was heading was shown not to work, as it was too dark. Brighter lights and colors brought the feel of adventure front and center again.
the Flooded floor
The Flooded floor as designed to give the player a sense of getting lost. Central to this area was it satisfying two improvements I wished to make: Have the player explore the depth of the facility and shorten the distance to the claw.
The Blocked Gate
As one of the parts I liked the most about the original, the area changed very little in its over all layout. The door it self was made larger, but the view was slightly obscured by the added detail in the garbage towers.
Pillar run & Claw Ride
Timing the sequencer and the self-adjusting jumps of the template took some playtesting to get right.
The original project had the player unlatch the claw which then activated to free the blocked gate. The idea remained, but the execution changed to
ensure less of "roller coster pacing".
Reflection
Closing Thoughts
Despite time constraints, I am satisfied with the results. Some areas I would've like to spend more time on framing, such view from the gate, as the detailing may have impaired readability of the claw. I did enjoy refining the experience as a practice in delivering on deadlines Maybe I'll return sometime in the future more adventurous scrap diving!